Location: Moscow National Stadium.
Time: October 20, 2018.
Tunisian player, Anas Jaber, enters the national stadium here in Moscow, to meet the owner of the earth, Daria Kasatkina, ranked 14th in the world, in the final of the Moscow Open, or what is known as the Kremlin Tennis Cup, for the first time in the history of Arab tennis. The hopes are very high for the 24-year-old, who is getting closer and closer to entering the list of the first 100 for the first time in its history, separated from that by only one position in order to achieve the title of the championship, especially since it appeared very distinctively throughout this week, and was able to exclude Several highly rated players (1)
The stadium is full of the end, where all tickets for the upcoming match are exhausted, there are many members of the Arab and Tunisian community in the stands to support them, in moments that you will not forget for the rest of their lives, while there is a majority of Russian citizens of course in order to support their citizenship, which lost the final last year Also. The match started strongly from the beginning, and its opponent, Anas, did not give time to enter the atmosphere of the meeting, as she managed to break the serve and advance early to end the first group with 6 runs in return for two games, to put her first hand on the championship cup, and to lose the Russian temper twice in the first group, after having It seemed to be affected by the public pressure.
"It was a great feeling in Moscow last year, I played my best during the ten days, very good memories, and it would have been really great moments, if I could have won the title then, but in the end this is the game of tennis"
(Anas Jaber in an exclusive interview with " Maidan ")
In the second group, the Tunisian woman continued her strides steadily, and advanced 4 runs, compared to three, and at a time when the second hand of Anas got close to the cup, the Russian won two successive terms, followed by the terms of breaking the tie, so that the second group would be settled in her favor, and the match would return to the starting point.
And because the misfortunes do not come individually, the world ranked 101 was injured before the end of the third set, to lose her first final in the ATP tournaments, and she lost a big dream that he had been chasing throughout this week in Moscow, but she wrote to us a bigger dream about the birth of an Arab player who we missed throughout the last years To compete with adults in the world of yellow ball (2)
REMARKABLE scenes in Moscow as @DKasatkina becomes the sixth Russian woman to lift the Kremlin Cup 🏆 |
The Miracle Girl
Anas’s success story, which is still under her chapters, started from the city of Qasr Hilal in Tunisia, when she was born on the twenty-eighth of August 1994, and grew up in love with the game of tennis, where her mother was accompanying her to the tennis courts when she was only three years old, which Reflected on her at the beginning of playing the game at school, and she showed a clear superiority over her colleagues, even those who are older and taller than her, to call her at that time the title of "Wonder Child" (3)
"I started with the game at the age of three, when I used to go with my mom to tennis, and from here I fell in love with tennis."
(Anas Jaber in an exclusive interview with "Maidan ")
Slowly her relationship with the game began to take on a new form, as she started putting her full focus with tennis, and it did not stop at just being a hobby, and she did not pay attention to those who mocked her, when she said during her participation in one of the championships in southern Tunisia that she would one day win the Roland Championship Garros, not yet six years old. (4)
"The most important characteristic of Anas is that she has strong certainty and great confidence in herself since childhood. She has chosen to dream big dreams, away from the restrictions that hinder our Arab players at the beginning of their career," Reem Abu Al-Lail, a tennis expert and journalist, told Maidan .
| Tunisian player Anas Jaber (French) |
"Unlike many players, Jaber fought a lot in order to move from the amateur stage to professionalism, where after her high school, she moved to a special training center in the Tunisian capital, and moved away from her home and her family in the Hilal Palace at an early stage of studying and training there at the same time, This is not common for players of this age. "
“I think my best moments with tennis are the moment I was crowned by Roland Garros Youth Championship 2011”
Anas Jaber in an exclusive interview with Maidan
The consequences of those decisions appeared early on the dreamy girl "Roland Garros", who began her professional journey in 2010, where she managed to reach the final of the championship that she had dreamed a lot under the age of 18, but lost to Ukrainian Elena Svetolina, currently ranked sixth for women, as she arrived To the semi-finals of the American Open U-18 Championship as well, while crowning the titles of Antalya, Turkey, and Casablanca in Morocco.
In her second professional year, she continued the remarkable brilliance, and reached for the second time in a row the final of Roland Garros under 18, but she did not give up the title this time, and thus became the first Arab player to crown a Grand Slam tournament for young women. (3)
Treasure in flight
With the great results of the promising player, the Tunisian Tennis Federation did not find it necessary to send it to the Belgian capital, Brussels, in 2012, in order to train at the hands of a group of the best coaches at the International Tennis Academy there, to cut the tape of its participation in the Grand Slam tournaments for the women's category, by Her favorite Roland Garros portal, she also managed to rise to represent Tunisia in the London Olympics in August of the same year. (3)
"Each championship has its own magic, but somehow Roland Garros has something special for me."
(Anas Jaber in an exclusive interview with " Maidan ")
During the seven-year journey to date, Anas gradually began to set her feet in the Grand Slam tournaments, as well as races and tournaments in the major professional league tournaments, where she recorded her participation in the main roles of the American Open and Australian Open tournaments, as well as succeeded in the rise to represent Tunisia at the Rio Olympics De Janeiro in the summer of 2016.
The real launch of Anas was at the beginning of 2017, when she caught the attention in the championships of Dubai, China, and Taiwan, then continued to enjoy and persuade and was able to rise to the third major role in the championship of Roland Garros, in the best Arab women's achievement in the history of the Grand Slam, while she only recorded her first participation in Wimbledon only deposited her from the 64 round, and she concluded the season by going up to the second round of the American Open after a distinguished performance as well. (5) (6)
Although Anas Jaber was injured this season, which forced her to withdraw from a number of championships, she was able to maintain her position within the list of the first 80
"Sometimes it is difficult to maintain your presence in this high level of competition, because of your injury a lot, but I trust that the injury makes me stronger, I always want to take the positive side of everything, I think this season has helped me a lot in understanding a lot of things And I'm now fully prepared for the next season. "
(Anas Jaber in an exclusive interview with "Maidan")
The most prominent event in 2018, of course, was its arrival in the historic final in Moscow, but it was not the only one, as the Tunisian guaranteed its presence in the list of the first 100 for the first time, after it rose more than 39 places, to reach the rank of 61, in another achievement that was registered in its name, after it became the first player An Arab woman reaches this rank after her citizen Selima Safar, who ranked 75 in 2001. (7) (4)
Despite her injury this season, which forced her to withdraw from a number of tournaments, she was able to maintain her position within the list of the first 80, and was able to reach the third round of the American Open, for the first time in the tournament, and the second in the Grand Slam tournaments. (8)
Grand Slam dream
Despite what Anas has made so far in the world of yellow football, which is considered a unique thing for an Arab player who came from southern Tunisia, she still wants to reap more, and the dream of Grand Slam still haunts it until this moment, and at the same time she knows very well the size of the responsibility placed on her as a model A role model for Arab and African tennis players, and they are always referred to on most occasions. (9)
"My goals are great for the coming season, I want to reach the list of the top 20, and my dream is still winning the Grand Slam, and I want to prove to young players that nothing is impossible, always I would like to be a good model for Arab and African players, and I am proud of that, it is a really great honor for me."
(Anas Jaber at the conclusion of her private interview for " Maidan ")
Abu Al-Lail believes that winning the Grand Slam is not an easy thing, as it requires the player in such tournaments to win 7 games in just 14 days, and she told " Maidan ": "There are many things that must be available to the player in order to win this title, The focus of the player is essential, the health and physical factor, and keeping fit throughout the 14 days, along with some luck in getting a good lot. "
"I know I am talented, but talent without work means nothing."
On the goal of reaching the top 20 list, Apolle emphasized that it is possible, of course, especially that Anas was ranked 51 as her best rating in her career just three months ago, and she explained: "One of Anas's advantages is that it does not focus mainly on classification, but always She looks at what she can do in the matches, tries to improve her performance, and takes steady steps in developing herself on the field, and through this she will rise in the rankings automatically. "
She concluded her speech to " Meydan " saying: "Attention to classification at the expense of other aspects is not useful, because tennis for women has become very difficult, and requires greater effort on the field, so it must focus on the physical and health side in order to raise its rating, and in order to be able to maintain On him later. "
Ones will enter the next season, eclipsed by her being chosen as the best Arab athlete of the year 2019, and she believes in her ability to make a new history in the game of tennis, not only for Tunisia alone, but for Arabs and Africa as well. Will 2020 be a witness to the realization of the dream that has been haunted since the sixth and flying the dreams of the Arabs towards Grand Slam, or will it be one of the years waiting for this dream to be fulfilled? (10)